Trans day of remembrance
We, the members of the Belmont LGBTQ+ Alliance, would like to bring to your attention Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), TDOR is an annual observance that honors transgender people who have been lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. Sadly, violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color.
The emergence of the Transgender Day of Remembrance is connected to our local history. In 1995, a 23 year-old, Black transsexual woman was murdered in Watertown; in 1998, a 35-year-old, Black transgender woman was killed in Allston.
In 1999, Gwendolyn Ann Smith created the first TDOR to memorialize these women from Massachusetts, writing: “Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence. I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost. With so many seeking to erase transgender people — sometimes in the most brutal ways possible — it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice.”
As a community, we can help transgender people by raising awareness of transphobic violence and fostering allyship.
*To learn more about the transgender community, see GLAAD’s Transgender FAQ: https://glaad.org/transgender/transfaq/
*To learn how you can better support the transgender community, see GLAAD’s Tips for Allies of Transgender People: https://glaad.org/transgender/allies/
*To volunteer for the Belmont LGBTQ+ Alliance
Anthems Talks: Transgender Awareness Week
One-on-one intimate discussions for its collection of five episodes celebrating Transgender Awareness Week. Sex Education’s Felix Mufti and West End actor Mika Onyx talk trans stories on screen and stage (“I do not want to tell another trans sob story,” says Mufti), while activists Charlie Craggs and Kenny Ethan Jones chat about surgery and queer joy spaces such as Pussy Palace. Hollie Richardson